You hear the name of a long-ago schoolteacher and you instantly have good vibes or bad vibes. You may have struggled in a class of theirs. This does not mean you cannot have good vibes. It's just a sense that the person in question is fundamentally good. You might cross paths with a teacher later in life, a teacher who may have given you difficulty in school. And isn't it uplifting to realize you can have a warm and enjoyable relationship?
I experienced this with my ninth grade math teacher, or should I say "algebra." I was just a kid at the time and unaware of all the shortcomings I may have been born with. A good teacher will recognize this. While I struggled and nearly got removed from the junior high play cast, the teacher did not harbor longstanding negative feelings. A couple years later when I was still in high school, and standing along a street in Morris with his adopted son and a mutual friend of ours, the teacher/dad drove up to us and he was so friendly with me, smiling. And I haven't forgotten that.
I can think of one high school teacher about whom I would get permanent bad vibes. We can all probably remember one such person. I will not type his name here. He is deceased. Many years later when I was making my rounds for the Morris newspaper, a teacher with some background with that person said of him "he was in trouble a lot." It was some consolation for me to hear that. I was not alone in my perception.
But here I'll turn my attention to one of those "good vibes" teachers. Hear the name "Jerry Landwehr," the good thoughts jump forward in your mind, just basic good thoughts. Forget about any classroom struggling. We can always think warmly of any fundamentally good person. And such a person was Jerry Landwehr.
Important to note here that I did not have Mr. Landwehr or "Señor Landwehr" as my teacher. How would I have performed? Probably not good and I don't say that in a self-deprecating way. I really did struggle in many aspects of school, was certainly in need of "behavior meds" which were not being dispensed so much then if at all.
Jerry Landwehr taught Spanish. My mother forced me to take French. I did struggle.
My attitude was bad? Seriously, could not have blamed me for having a bad attitude. I'm serious here: foreign language instruction in the 1970s was off the mark seriously, as we have discovered that "immersion" is the only reliable way to encourage fluency with a different language. In other words, as soon as you step into the classroom, you are only allowed to speak that language. The incentive takes over as you learn what you simply have to learn.
I could wince in pain as I remember about three years of French instruction. Years later I was listening to Don Shelby reflect on the errant form of language instruction. He recalled a family member of his, maybe a sister, taking French in the older fashion. To understand that fashion, just think "conjugating verbs." Shelby said of the person he was talking about, "she could conjugate verbs like crazy but she couldn't speak French."
Shelby had a shift on WCCO Radio at the time. He was a well-known TV news person as well, very credible. "Couldn't speak French." Well it makes you wonder about the foundation for such teaching. What was the thinking? Education can be flawed because it is a system devised by man. So, in the 1970s in our Morris MN we had the incredibly teeming numbers of the "boomer" generation, in which I got lost in the whole sea I guess - kids all over the place, often behaving in a foolish way.
But. . .in spite of the needs presented by so many kids, we lacked resources that today we take for granted! Girls athletics was just getting going in the 1970s and it was happening with the expected fits and starts. The girls culture was not attuned to that previously. People did not casually discuss the fortunes of our girls athletic teams with anything close to seriousness, not at all like today. It was a novelty.
We had girls then who could have really gone places today. Which makes me wonder: what did girls of this type and potential do pre-1970s? How would they find their niche? Girls were expected to take "home ec." We wince upon being reminded of that. Boys meanwhile took "shop." What happened to the shop classes, classes where boys developed the satisfaction of making things, of using their hands?
Guys my age might still have nightmares about how Mr. Brimi might discipline you in shop class. Teachers have to be restrained in how they discipline kids today. However let me stress that the mention of Brimi's name today would give me "good vibes." He was one of the "good vibes" people just like Landwehr. Kids truly had a sense about this.
The boomer generation when young in Morris did not have FFA. We did not have fully developed organized hockey. Hockey existed on sort of a sandlot basis, not at all like today.
We obviously did not have the concert hall of today. When was the theater auditorium built? Mid-1970s? So that's a fairly new thing too. We had band concerts in the 1968 gym and also the old school auditorium (the school now razed). Actually the concerts seemed pretty successful in those places.
The big all-school musical "Oliver" of 1970 was at the old school. The old school had one of those combination gym/auditorium arrangements. It could be called either a gym or an auditorium. Varsity basketball was played there through about 1968. I personally attended several games there, am proud to remember.
And yes I took "French" class. So I remember the bad with the good. And I ended up no worse off than my classmates who got good grades in French. Because, "they couldn't speak French," to paraphrase Shelby.
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| Jerry Landwehr (1971) |
We're all remembering Jerry Landwehr now because he has gone on to the next life.
"Good vibes" to remember. I remember the sign at his country retirement place that said "Landwehr Ranch." It was along the shore of Long Lake between Cyrus and Hancock. It was on the curious winding road between the two towns. The road struck me as a little substandard. I drove it countless times when I was van driver for the Morris Sun Tribune newspaper.
I remember when the Cyrus school board "chose Hancock" for joining with on a full-fledged basis. I smile. There was this seeming explosion of rejection from Hancock interests in the aftermath! Ah, rural school controversies. We used to have more of those. The solution is for the state to just take charge I guess.
Had the Cyrus-Hancock combo been fully established, the Hancock elementary kids would have to have been bused along the winding road to Cyrus, according to my recollections of the discussion at the time. Also, Hancock parents would have to pay "long distance" to call the elementary school in Cyrus.
The Hancock superintendent was quoted saying "we can make this work if the people want to make it work." Not enough did. I don't know if the disgruntled faction from Hancock was just a loud minority but it sure was loud. The school pairing failed. But for several years, "Cyrus-Hancock athletics" was most definitely in existence.
Today? I'm not as well-versed about what all is going on today. I am reminded that teachers can still be an awful pain with complaining about the pay they receive. Good God, I hope we are not on a slippery slope back to how things were in the 1980s. Public school teachers in Minnesota were a scourge back then, going on strike nearly everywhere. They threatened to go on strike here, had printed signs prepared.
This week's Morris newspaper has coverage of a school board meeting that shows teachers are at least still restless. I hope and pray this is not a harbinger. A teacher last name of Messner made a bellyaching presentation to our board. There must have been a time when Ms. Messner was hired and was happy to have been hired, happy to have the job. Unions can engender such terrible discontent and conflict.
We have seen similar unrest with labor actions at our U of M-Morris. Here's the email I shared the other day with friend and fellow school advocate Warrenn Anderson:
Hello Warrenn - We have been here before, a community in which teachers start complaining and get a chip on their shoulder. So I shook my head looking at new Morris newspaper at library yesterday, the school board article. This teacher name of Messner, been here 30 years, and she comes at the board with a high-pressure speech about how Morris teachers are underpaid. She's comparing salaries here to other places? Well, that standard will cause salaries everywhere to keep shooting up. Everyone will have to "keep up."
My biggest fear through all this is that teachers get disgruntled and bitter and it affects their work and attitude. Like I said, we have been here before.
Maybe the biggest problem is this: teachers bitching will get private benefactors like yours truly discouraged, less likely to do it again. Regarding UMM I have told Erin directly that I'd never give another penny if we ever see people on strike with picket signs around the campus.
All these people accepted their jobs on certain terms and were happy to get them at the time. Please stay happy and committed, people.
We had public school teachers in the 1980s going around town talking about how much they hated Fred Switzer. It was demoralizing just to know about that. Administration should have a way to clamp down on that behavior.
Can my voice make a difference? It never does, does it?
Before we pay our school staff more, let's figure out why the girls basketball team lost to Minnewaska 70-29. This was right out of the 1980s. This stuff would happen and then you'd just get in trouble commenting on it. I hope that at the present time, when a game like this happens, that the AD would call in the coach for a calm and constructive discussion on how the slump happened. But with Mulder, the approach was to just "protect" the coach and insulate him from any criticism, period. The parents were always the "bad guys." Well I think that caught up with Mulder. My, I'm dating myself.
And I still think the softball complex is a serious boondoggle. Am I the only one? I see that UMM parking permits are needed for the lot there. Clever by UMM.
Maybe I'm done giving away my money. I just don't want to be remembered as a selfish person.
Nothing is going to stop Donald Trump.
Let's wrap all this up with a testimonial and a photo that was taken in the twilight of Jerry Landwehr's life. The photo at right shows Jerry with Del Sarlette in September of 2023. Jerry hanging in there with zest for life as always.
Below is from an email that Del sent me on Jerry's passing:
RIP Jerry Landwehr. Did you take Spanish in HS? I signed up for it the first year it was offered here, when I was a junior. It replaced Latin, the other language choice was French. I knew even as a zombie-like 16-year old that Spanish would be more beneficial to me in the future than French. That first year, the teacher was to be a fellow named Jim Reihle (sp?), but he wasn’t going to get to town until a month or 2 into the school year, so we started off with subs. Once he got here, he was a fun teacher, mostly because he taught us Spanish swear words and street lingo insults (he had lived in Mexico City for awhile). He bailed before the school year was out, so we had another batch of subs to finish out the year – we had 11 total teachers that year. One was the UMM place kicker - remember Eduardo Salsedo? Señor Landwehr was here for my senior year, and was a good teacher. However, 50+ years later, I can’t carry on even the most minimal of conversations with a local Hispanic. That’s more on me than Señor Landwehr. I ran into Jerry at the Pizza Ranch this past September – I didn’t recognize him as I hadn’t seen him for awhile (and see attached photo). But, he recognized me, and we had a good chat (in English).
Addendum from BW: I remember hearing the story of how Jerry showed great wisdom and foresight - or did he get lucky? - by "checking the box" for a stock investment option in his teacher retirement package. At the time, the stock market was not considered that reliable an option, might have invited skepticism from many. Well, yours truly grew up being told continually that stocks were risky. So it took, shall we say, "balls" to go that route. Jerry had it, was vindicated in the years following as stocks showed great fruition!
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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